Chasing Butterflies

[Meluiwen (DELETED 5494)]

<---Roleplay done on grid in chat at Walnut Grove--->

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen stared straight ahead as her legs seemed to be listlessly, barely holding her up as light, almost in-audiable steps raced toward the man, with a doll almost her size clutched up in her arms. It was probably the cause for the wobbliness of her legs, with it's heavy weight, "Trying! Trying catch!" She bumped into the man and fell, but was careful to not let the doll get her. She frowned at the doll as if it were talking to her, yelling at her, "Not fault, not mine! It go away!" They were chasing a butterfly

<Taggart> “Hey, do you want me to come by tomorrow, t--” He shouted into the barn at a distance, only to get interrupted as the owner shut the door as if he hadn’t heard him at all. “Geeze what a prick.” The boy muttered to himself as he turned his back, wiping the sweat off of his face with his hoodie. Although is was pitch black, he still felt like he was overheating from the full day’s work. Victor quickly counted the wad of bills he had, checking for the full amount before sticking it into his back pocket. At least he was paid well. He might not have to go to the Slums this week. A grin crossed his full lips, only to be immediately wiped away by a puzzled look. Had something hit him? Victor glanced around him, then looked down at his feet when he heard a shrill, child-like voice. “Uh,” He started, his forehead wrinkling as he slowly crouched down to the child’s level. “Are… you alright?”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen blinked blue, transparently so, eyes up from the doll to be eye level with the man who had leaned down for her. She stood herself up, wobbly so, and clutched the doll which stood at her side, "Sorry." She buried her face in the doll's shoulder, until he chastised her to be social. So she held out her hand and offered a sweet, warm, smile, "Okay. Am. You?"

<Taggart> Victor tried to offer her a hand as she stood, but she seemed determined to ignore the gesture. Or perhaps she just didn’t see it due to the other person with her. “Hey, hey, it’s perfectly okay. Are both of you alright?” He asked, concern heavy in his tone. He could have sworn he barely felt one person bump into him, let alone two. Victor waited, patiently for the kids to get themselves steady. When she hid her face away from him, into the smaller child, he couldn’t help but smile at her apparent shyness. His grin grew when she stuck her hand out. “I think I’m alright. I’m glad the two of you are.”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen stared at the man, in the darkness with owlish blue eyes before a bigger smile settled warmly on her face, "Okay! We're okay! We, butterfly, chase, it disappear." Had their actually been a butterfly? Who knows. She tended to see things that weren't really there due to seeing things that were there that no one else saw. Speaking off, she glanced over his shoulder. Never even stopping to wonder why the person was so much clearer to see than the man that was obviously closer, but she ignored the person for now, as they were saying nothing. Her glossy, unfocused eyes tried to focus on what little of the man she could see.

<Taggart> “A butterfly? But it’s--,” He pulled out his phone to check the time. It was just after ten. The moon was behind the trees, but you could still see the light of it. Perhaps she meant a moth. When he was her age, he couldn’t tell the difference either, and ended up taking one into the house to show his mother. She told him to put it back outside. How disappointing. He sighed, shaking himself out of his memories and turned his eyes back up at the two. “Wha-!” He started, the light from his phone’s screen catching their faces. The tinted bluish light caught on her face, probably making her appear much more pale than she actually was, and she seemed almost ghost-like. Her companion, he knew now, was just a doll. In the darkness it looked a bit like Chuckie, but like, emo Chuckie. “S-so,” He turned the phone towards the two of them, lighting them dimly, but still better than his human eyes could see in the dark. “You guys came out here chasing a butterfly?”

[Taggart (DELETED 5259)]

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen nodded her head and to his question and held the doll's hand out to be shaked, "Big brother. Hello. Say hello." She stared, hearing the 'hello' from the doll. It wasn't really the doll, it was a spirit, but she only heard the voice, so she ended up thinking her dolls were talking to her. She realized she had been rude after her doll spoke to her again, "Meluiwen. And...?" She gave her name and asked for his.

<Taggart>“Big brother?” He laughed, easily, and shook the doll’s hand as he had hers. Though he was still a bit nervous about the doll, he wasn’t about to crush her imagination. He looked straight at the doll, and spoke to it. “I think your sister’s got you beat! I thought you were the little brother!” Victor looked at her as she said her name and his nose wrinkled as if he’d swallowed a bug. What kind of uppity, first class family would name their kid that?“Mel-ooe-when?”He tried, and probably failed to replicate her name. Christ almighty, parents were weird people. “My name’s Tory. What are you guys doing all the way out here in the middle of the night?”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen simply nodded her head, whether it was because he said it right or because she didn't care was debatable, "Tory, pretty. Okay, Mel?" She was trying to say he could just call her Mel. She glanced down at her doll, preening at him with a content look, "Brother wanted."

<Taggart> The sounds of the night were beginning to make him nervous. He tapped his phone, pulling up his flashlight app. He turned the bright light towards the grass, so he wouldn’t blind the poor girl. “Pretty? Nah, Tory is a nice, strong name.” He grinned at her and flexed his arm. His eyebrows rose as he tried to decipher her segmented sentences. “Is it okay if I call you Mel? Your brother is pretty risky, wanting to come out so late at night. He’s a little dare-devil, he is.” A small laugh escaped his lips as he lifted himself up. “Your parents are probably worried about you guys. Let me take you two home.”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen smiled in a blissful way and nodded. It was nice to make friends. She blinked and glanced to the doll and giggled a bit at the response the doll had to the man's words, "Likes adventure, brother does." Mel blinked owlishly, "No worried, they happy if I disappear and no ever come back."

[Meluiwen (DELETED 5494)]

<Taggart> When she said that, Victor paused. Thankfully, the dark night hid his grimace. Every kid sometimes felt like their parents hated them, but she had said it so matter-of-factly that it just set him on edge. He inhaled, to calm himself down, and turned to grin at her, hiding his confusion and bubbling anger. “That’s not true!” He laughed, goodnaturedly. “I bet when you two get home, they’ll be so ecstatic and relieved that you’re safe. Parents love you, no matter what.”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen blinked at the man's cheerful optimism. She shook her head, she didn't sound daunted at all by any of this. It was rather like she was stating facts from a book, "They not cry when brother die. They feel less I go." A sweet little smile formed on her face as she left the doll to stand on it's own and cupped the man's face with her thin fingers, "Thank though." The only problem her parents would have would be that some one brought her back because it meant some one saw their shameful secret.

<Taggart> Victor looked down at her as she reached up to him, taking in her words. He had multiple cousins around her age, but she seemed much more - what was the word - enlightened? She didn’t appear upset about her parents apparent disinterest in her well being. Then again, kids were pretty sensitive to their surroundings. “Come on,”he said, his tone soft as he put his hand over hers. “Let’s get you guys home.” He glanced back at her ‘brother’. He nearly forgot about her porcelain doll.

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen nodded, indulging him. She didn't particularly want to go home. But the longer she stayed out and bugged him, the worse the yelling and lecturing would be. She tugged her doll back to her side, hefting it up. Though, not much as it was only a foot if less shorter than her. She held out her other hand for Tag, curious to see if he'd actually hold her hand or just grab her wrist.

<Taggart> He smiled down at her reached out for her hand, though it probably felt more like he just grabbed is since her hands were much smaller. “Which way to your house, Mel?”He asked, glancing around to scan the empty field. He loved playing outside as a kid, especially at night when it was much cooler during the summer. He would have absolutely let her play outside a little bit longer, at least, before taking her home, but now it was much different. They shouldn’t have even been out here this long. He had to get her home as quickly as possible.

<Meluiwen> “.................”

<Meluiwen> “Umh.... Umh..... Umh.... Brother?”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen stared at the doll with a lost look on her face. Without her touching the arm, the doll trembled at the effort the ghost made to move it to point the hand in the right direction, ".... Don't want go that way." She held her nose up, almost like a spoiled child, but the dolls hand continued to point in that direction insistently, though without the ghost's aid now, as the dolls were made to keep poses on their own.

[Taggart (DELETED 5259)]

-The following transcript was a livechat roleplay-

<Taggart> He reached up and scratched his neck with his free hand, a small frown crossing his lips. Victor glanced down at her and the doll, waiting for her to get an answer from the doll. Which was a little ridiculous, a grown man waiting for a queue from a doll. He looked away for a moment, trying to get rid of the awkward feeling, only to glance back when the doll had mostly raised its arm. Wait, what? The man stared at the arm, then his gaze moved to the dark, expressionless face of the figure. The hoodie, forgotten on his shoulder, slipped off and into the grass. He blinked himself out of his confused trance. He just hadn’t seen Mel move the thing’s arm. Yeah. That was it. “Why don’t you want to go that way? Is that towards home?” He said, pointing in the same direction.

<Meluiwen> Brother says so.

<Meluiwen> But....

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen leans to whisper, "Sometimes... Brother direction bad." That is to say, as he was a spirit attached to her and not a place,his perception of direction wasn't any better than her's right now. But he was probably right, given the fact he had pointed so assuredly.

<Taggart> Victor laughed at that. “You brother is bad at directions, is he?” He rubbed his nose. The air was getting colder with each minute that passed, and darker as well. “Let’s just go this way for now, and if he’s wrong, we’ll go another way.”Victor grinned at them, but kept an eye on the doll. He started to step forward and gently pulled her along.

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen followed along, the doll shook a bit before the arm fell back to it's side. But then again, if you didn't know how BJDs worked, which kept them taught and in pose, it would be easy to assume that the movement of walking jostled the doll's arm to fall. She stared up at Tag, not at all bothered by the doll, "O...kie...."

<Taggart> He swallowed thickly as he watched her brother-doll at the corner of his eye. Of course, he had no idea what exactly what kind of doll it was, his own sister being too old for dolls and he just wasn’t entirely sure if his extended family liked those kind of things. The movement of them walking was absolutely the cause of its arm falling back into place. As much as he kept telling himself that, though, there was just a lingering thought of something not quite logical. He refused to linger too much on it, however. His green gaze flicked back to Mel, and he rose an eyebrow at her in the dark. Her tone had him a little concerned. “You okay?”

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen nodded and held onto his hand a little tighter. She was mostly curious. Tilting her head one way and then another in inquiry like it would help her see better. Though, if truth be told. She only had an idea of what he looked like from putting her fingers on his face. She couldn't see well even under normal circumstances, let alone the dark, "You afraid? Dark nice."

[Meluiwen (DELETED 5494)]

<Taggart> “Am I okay?” He laughed softly. He wasn’t afraid of the dark, just some of the things that were in it. “Nah, not at all.” Victor grinned down at Mel as they walked, hoping his brave face would convince her. He reached around to his back, discreetly fixing his small hand gun, thankful he didn’t forget it this morning when he left for work. Even if he had, he wasn’t exactly defenseless. After a moment of walking in silence, farm houses looming in the distance, he cleared his throat. Something had been bothering him. “You said you brother… died. How many brothers do you have?”

<Meluiwen>Meluiwen nodded, though it wasn't really like she totally believed his answer. Fake expressions couldn't fool some one who couldn't really see them. She viewed auras and underlying tones better than physical cues. Nonetheless, she didn't want to push it. She hefted the doll up higher, "Only brother. They want. They fail." She meant to say her parents were trying for another heir and failing miserably.

<Taggart> He was silent for another moment as he tried to process her words. His eyes drifted back to the doll. “You… only have one brother?” A chill threatened to roll up his spine, but he pressed the feeling back. “Okay.” He sighed heavily, then noticed just how dark it was. “Crap, you probably can’t see.” Victor fumbled to pull his phone out of his pocket, using his flashlight app to light up the field in front of them as they walked. “Sorry about that, Mel.” He could already see fairly clearly without it. Well, that wasn’t quite true. He could probably only see a little better than she could.

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen watched the light give a tiny bit more clarity. But it wasn't really enough to make any difference. The girl giggled into the dolls shoulder, finding it silly how caring this guy was. She could at least make out the figure out her large house thanks to the light. There was no lights on, obviously her parents hadn't waited up. Her caretaker was probably out looking for her, "This. Monster house."

<Taggart> Victor narrowed his eyes at the house. “Monster, huh?” He smirked a bit. It seemed she was right about her parents, but he wasn’t about to give her any assurance. “Let’s go knock on the door, then, shall we?” He hummed, mostly to himself but loud enough for her to hear. Victor grinned as they approached her home. He was tempted to yell, to wake them all up and cause a scene, but the thought of attracting attention stopped him.

<Meluiwen> Meluiwen followed along, with a blank stare on her face. He wanted to knock? She wanted to yell. Truth be told, she hated them as much as they hated her. If not more. She enjoyed causing them shame. They treated her like a disgrace regardless of how she acted anyways. So without even a second thought. She gave out a loud, monotonous, "Haaaaaah!" To which lights flickered on, scurrying occurred in the house. Servants opened the door to grace them with the vision of an irritated couple in robes. She rolled her translucent blue eyes as if it cued the 'apologies', 'scolding' and the theatrics caused by her mother's scorn and the added irritation it caused her father as he shoved a twenty at Tag's chest as if that would make him stay shut up and go away.

[Taggart (DELETED 5259)]

-The following transcript was a livechat roleplay-

<Taggart> Victor watched her, surprised as she let out the yell, then watched in amusement as the house lit up. “So, there are people home.” He said, loudly, as the door swung open. When the man shoved money at him, his face darkened with a grimace. He still took the money, absolutely, but that didn’t mean he wasn't going to give them a piece of his mind. “Now listen here, asshole!” He shouted, crumpling the cash in his hand as he pointed at them, anger bubbling up. “What the hell kind of parents are you, not checking to see if your kid is safe in her room? She could have been seriously injured out there. Do you even know what’s out there?!” He yelled, furious.

‹Meluiwen› Meluiwen 's eyes had gone glassy -her normal defense of zoning out. Until Tag spoke up. The girl giggled. Tag sounded like her caretaker had before he'd given up on fighting with her parents. She tugged on his hand and shook her head, "No afraid of dark. Scarier things in place safe." What she was saying? There's nothing out in this world that is scarier than not feeling safe in a place you should. Which was why she seemed so... 'mature' despite how child-like she seemed.


<Taggart>He paused his verbal rampage to look down at her. He almost missed her trying to get his attention. The man frowned at her as translated her sentence, rage making his mind cloudy. He also wasn’t too intelligent, so it took him a bit longer to decipher her words. When he finally understood, after a moment’s pause, his expression grew dark. He looked between her parents, then back to her. Victor moved in front of her and slowly crouched to her level. “You guys are home now, so I guess I’ll see you later, then?” He smiled for her, anger still clear on his face. He didn’t really want to let her inside, now that he’s actually seen her parents, but he couldn’t do much about it at the moment.

‹Meluiwen› ... Again? You? See you again? -She had been almost confused at the fact it sounded like he didn't mind meeting her again. A bright smile lit her face.* Yes!


<Taggart>“Of course.” He grinned, the immediately frowned. The light from inside the house gave him a better look at her face. While she was small, her face looked older than what he originally thought she was. “Mel, how old are you?”He asked, parents temporarily out of his mind.

‹Meluiwen›Meluiwen blinked. She tended to forget she looked young to people, "All grown up. Eighteen."


<Taggart>He stared at her, blank faced for a moment before simply saying,“Oh.”Victor turned back to the door where her parents were waiting, one of his knees hitting the ground, and he pointed a finger at them accusingly. “That makes no difference to what I just said. She is your daughter and you need to make sure she’s okay.”

‹Meluiwen› I go sleep now. I-- Oh! I phone! -She took his phone and put in her number. Though. Her caretaker usually had her's.- Good night! -She preened before shoving past her parents and the servants to go upstairs to a room filled with dolls.-


<Taggart>Victor just watched her silently as she excitedly took his phone and ran off. He smiled, amused, as he entered her name and saved it to his contacts. He looked back at her parents, his eyes narrowing dangerously before he turned his back on them, making sure to reach back and tuck in his shirt, exposing enough of the hidden handgun as he walked away. “Rich people.”